India, Sept. 19 -- Some African termites build mounds that rise more than five meters above the ground, creating towering structures around their colonies. Coral reefs extend for many thousands of kilometers. Spider silk can be stronger than steel by weight. None of these creatures can draw blueprints, but they can still produce structures that are highly sophisticated from an engineering perspective. How animals achieve this has been a subject of scientific study for decades, with researchers examining how simple individual actions can give rise to complex structures.

Dartmouth College behavioral ecologist Mark Laidre examined that question in a review published in Current Biology, drawing together research on how animals from termites ...